Main Street Monday – 88% of Small Businesses Have Exhausted Their PPP Funds

September 14, 2020

By: Caity Roach
Contributing Editor, Main Street Monday

Main Street Monday – 88% of Small Businesses Have Exhausted Their PPP Funds

According to a new survey conducted by Goldman Sachs, 88% of the small business owners say they have already exhausted their federal funding and 32% have now been forced to lay off employees or cut wages.

Here are the highlights from the study:

• Nearly three-quarters of the 860 small businesses surveyed say they are fully open, up from just 39% in April and 53% in May.
  
  
• 25% of small businesses say that the pandemic has greatly hurt their finances, down from 33% in April.
  
  
• 36% of businesses surveyed say that if no new funding comes from Congress soon they will have to lay off workers or cut back hours.
  
  
• The 65% of owners who believe their business will survive is the lowest percentage recorded in the survey thus far, down from 73% in July and 68% in April.
  
  
• Data from the survey shows that Black-owned businesses are facing more struggles. 43% say that their business’s cash reserves will be depleted by year-end if Congress does not act in September (compared to 30% of respondents overall) and 31% say less than a quarter of their pre-COVID revenue has returned (compared to the 16% of respondents overall).

“Small business owners have made their position clear — they need more legislative support and there is no time to waste,” says a Goldman Sachs spokesperson. However, last Thursday, the Senate voted down a COVID-19 relief bill that would have allowed struggling businesses to obtain a second draw PPP loan. As negotiations surrounding the economic relief package become more partisan, many small business owners fear that additional federal funding may not come until after the November 3rd election.

 

Sources:
AXIOS